HSUS ‘a big loser’ in elections

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Consumer Freedom, on its web site HumaneWatch.org, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was a big loser last week.

HumaneWatch says one major loss for HSUS was the defeat of Measure 5 in North Dakota, a ballot initiative to make certain forms of animal cruelty a felony. HSUS’ lobbying arm spent more than 675 thousand dollars in support of the measure, but it was defeated by a 65 to 35 margin.

Another example cited by Humanewatch is the Fourth District congressional race in Iowa, where HSUS made Representative Steve King its major target in his race against former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack. The Humane Society Legislative Fund spent upwards of a million dollars to oppose King, insinuating he supported dogfighting. In the end, King beat Vilsack by eight percentage points.

Steve King agrees that his victory was a big defeat for HSUS.

“They are the ones that I think are—in addition to Christie and Tom Vilsack—are the big losers,” King says. “They put a million dollars into this race against me—a million dollars—in order to advance their vegan agenda by driving another agenda and trying to make this race about something other than what it was.”

King, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, says it’s proof that you can stand up to HSUS—and win.

“And when I go back to the ag committee and people shrink and fear that HSUS can take on and wound a candidate—well, we’re living proof that it doesn’t work,” King says.

“You always still have to tell the truth—at least to Iowans.”

King has been a frequent critic of HSUS. Earlier this year, he was successful in adding an amendment to the House version of the farm bill that prohibits states from regulating the means of production of agriculture products. King believes that is what prompted the HSUS attack ads against him in the Fourth District congressional race.

4 Comments

This is a little off-topic, but I think it’s important. HSUS is fundraising like gangbusters for Hurricane Sandy, sending out tons of press releases and pitching stories about their great work to media outlets everywhere. They’ve got NBC, People Magazine, yahoo.com, msn and tons of others listing them as one of the top charities to donate to. NBC listed HSUS third, just after the Red Cross and Salvation Army and before Catholic Charities, Americares, Habitat for Humanity, and loads of other respected charities. HSUS is doing some relief work, but mostly low-budget efforts, housing a few hundred animals in makeshift temporary shelters (with donated supplies and pet food), while falsely claiming to have rescued thousands. HSUS says they mobilized dozens of first responders, but they are unaffiliated with HSUS. How much does it cost to request expert assistance. How much can you rake in taking credit for their work? As with Katrina, the donation page includes the disclaimer that contributions will be used for Hurricane Sandy and other disasters. Same thing happened with Katrina. When they were cornered by the Louisiana Attorney General and couldn’t back up their claims to have used the funds for the intended purpose, HSUS argued that only donations earmarked for Katrina had to be used for Katrina. I want to see an accounting of exactly how much they take in and how much is spent on this disaster. Not how much they say they spent – how much they actually spent. Then we’ll see what can be done.

We need more politicians to speak out against these radical animal rights groups who want to end all use of animals for any purpose. We are omnivores not herbivores thus we need Active VB12 which only comes from meat for our brains to think rationally. Any state that fosters criminals at the university level and the state of California is allowing these animal rights groups to hold a symposium with convicted criminals advocating more crime should not be allowed.

If people stop and think about how much money the HSUS has removed from the economy in the state and in fact all states and, the jobs that go with those animal enterprises, it would make one’s head spin.

To spend almost 800,000 on defeating one candidate. They must have money to throw away, except that perhaps those little old ladies who thought they were helping puppies and kitties who donated part of their social security check don’t realize they are a lobbying agency and political arm, what a fraud. They should be investigated by IRS at least and maybe the Justic Department.